missing airlock and short fermentation time

Hi All,

I just began enthusiastically reading about homebrewing a week and a half ago and jumped right in to make a batch (probably too soon, but with real enthusiasm).

My main question is whether I should hold onto this batch or not, since I know I made a couple of errors:

* When I pitched yeast and sealed the fermenter, initially I didn't put any liquid in the airlock since I didn't realize how it worked. (Stupid mistake, I know). I fixed the situation about 8 hours afterwards.

* The airlock soon began bubbling vigorously and apparently through the night, even bubbling over at one point as evidenced by the runover and gunk in the airlock. But all visible bubbling stopped in less than 24 hours from sealing the fermenter.

* A couple of other errors were that I probably pitched the yeast before the wort cooled sufficiently, at about 90F, and didn't do anything to aerate the batch, other than pooring the wort into the partially water-filled fermenter.

Is it worth waiting this batch out despite these mistakes?

Thanks,
BitterAl

Hi again Bill!

Yeup keep it. Very very rare to have to throw one out.

Not having the liquid in the airlock should not be a problem with the amount of CO2 being pushed out from the wort stopping the nasties getting in.

As for pitching it when the wort was too hot - it is fermenting just now so it must have worked!

The fementation may have been quick - very quick! Did you take OG readings?

bitteral said:

Hi All,

I just began enthusiastically reading about homebrewing a week and a half ago and jumped right in to make a batch (probably too soon, but with real enthusiasm).

My main question is whether I should hold onto this batch or not, since I know I made a couple of errors:

* When I pitched yeast and sealed the fermenter, initially I didn't put any liquid in the airlock since I didn't realize how it worked. (Stupid mistake, I know). I fixed the situation about 8 hours afterwards.

* The airlock soon began bubbling vigorously and apparently through the night, even bubbling over at one point as evidenced by the runover and gunk in the airlock. But all visible bubbling stopped in less than 24 hours from sealing the fermenter.

* A couple of other errors were that I probably pitched the yeast before the wort cooled sufficiently, at about 90F, and didn't do anything to aerate the batch, other than pooring the wort into the partially water-filled fermenter.

Is it worth waiting this batch out despite these mistakes?

Thanks,
BitterAl

Click to expand...

Definitely do not dump (or ever dump without green mold all over the wort/beer) any beer before its completed and you've tried it. You should be just fine despite those mistakes...

No airlock for 8 hours definitely isn't a good thing, but its possible it didn't get infected at all. If the airlock was on with just no water in, it was still doing SOMETHING in protecting the beer (i.e. no airborn dust or anything would get through). Also, the way it sounds your fermentation was very vigorous. It probably started before these 8 hours and with that a layer of C02 would have formed on the wort protecting it further.

Dropping yeast at 90 is also not a great idea, but if you didn't kill the yeast you are just fine. That's the real risk with pitching before sufficient cooling (killing if pitched into ~110+ water). Also, as far as aeration goes, its a good idea to aerate, but often times just pouring the wort into the bucket and letting it splash may be enough. Especially if you only did a partial boil and the beginning water or top water wasn't boiled (would still contain plenty of 02) but just bottled water or something...

Either way, from your description it definitely appears your yeast worked just fine fermenting the batch (and it is very possible it fermented out in 24-36 hours and finished), so don't sweat it. Take a gravity reading and if it appears plenty low or unchanged for a day or three, rack it to a secondary, wait, prime/bottle, drink...

Good luck!

Welcome!

It sounds like you made some classic mistakes, but nothing that you need to get overly concerned about.

The empty airlock was probably enough of a barrier to protect your wort while the yeast worked their way up to a vigorous, bubbly fermentation.

"Bubbling over" or blow-off, as it's often called, is common - you can avoid that in future batches by using a blow-off tube - basically a big airlock made from a large diameter (1/2" or bigger) piece of sanitized vinyl tubing running from the opening in the lid of your fermenter into a container of sanitizing solution.

A fast, vigorous fermentation is good, and it means that your wort was sufficiently aerated even though you didn't do anything to increase the dissolved oxygen in it. It also means that you didn't harm your yeast by pitching at too high a temperature. Most ales ferment fairly completely within a couple of days, even inside 24 hours when conditions are right.

Finally, NEVER THROW A BATCH OUT BEFORE YOU TASTE IT!

Instead, RDWHAHB!

Happy brewing!

Thanks for the info guys. Now I'll be able to comfortably wait it out.

Regarding OG reading, I didn't take one. I was following the quick start section of John Palmers "How To Brew", and it doesn't instruct you to take the reading. Just leave the brew in the fermeter for 1 week (no secondary fermenter). Since mixing that first brew, I've read several more sections of that book and another and I understand the concept of OG/FG. So I think I can take that practice up with my next batch.

One other thing I'm curiuos about. To take an FG reading, you must open up your fermenter to get the FG reading. If you find that the FG reading hasn't dropped sufficiently, you just seal it up and retest later? So that means it is ok to open your fermenter and reseal it? I guess it should be ok as long as you try to minimize any chance of contamination, right?

Thanks, again.

The less opportunities that the nasties (wild yeast etx) have to get into your brew the better.

If you keep your kit sterile then you can pour the brew back in, or drink it like a lot of people seem to do.

Yeah, I enjoy taking my gravity sample and then drinking it, to see how my beer is coming along both in terms of fermentation and taste.